HOW DOES EARLY STIMULATION WORK?

Babies participate and learn actively in the world. They experiment, and in this way they learn the function of objects and situations; and they can make their own interpretations. The baby comes to discover his or her surroundings as he or she experiences how the world affects his or her body, hence the importance of the involvement of the senses in learning. When the child touches, smells or tastes something, he or she begins to explore and understand the cause and effect, just as when he or she throws something, and does it repeatedly. With these actions, the child sees the consequences of his or her actions.

From birth until they are two years of age a child is in what is called the Sensory Motor Period, which means that they come to know and learn about their world through the senses; the child compiles information about his or her experiences, which he or she will apply in reality later on. That is why it is so important to work with textures, colors, food, smells, games, songs and other activities in our classes that optimize this learning and converts it into something tangible and meaningful for the children.  

Four areas of development are recognized in a baby’s learning process:

1. Socio-affective, which has to do with the child’s ability to socialize and know him- or herself;
2. Motor, which refers to small and large movements that a person makes with his or her body;
3. Cognitive, where you take into account knowledge acquisition, and the ability to reason and resolve problems; and finally,
4. Linguistics, which refers to acquiring and perfecting language, as well as the ability to communicate as a human being.

It is important to keep in mind that any activities related to early stimulation should have clear objectives and take into account the four areas of childhood development; in addition, there should be a balance of activities in the four areas so that the child’s development is integral and in this way we avoid overstimulation, which could end up producing results contrary to what was intended.

In teaching a new language to children between 0 and 3 years of age, the following points should be taken into account:

It is recommended that it be done in small groups or individually, since at this age children don’t have the same ability to concentrate as older children. Additionally, the child is just learning the rules of social conduct, like sharing, awaiting his or her turn, and asking for things instead of grabbing them, among others that could become distractions during the lesson. On the other hand, the child’s level of attention and understanding depends to a large extent on how physically close the teacher is to the child when communicating with him or her, and a small group or individual class makes appropriate closeness possible.